Son of Zorn is a Fox sitcom series from Phil Lord & Chris Miller that debuted in the 2016 Fall season. It follows the premise of Zorn (voice of Jason Sudeikis), a cartoon barbarian similar to He-Man who comes from the magical South Pacific island of Zephyria, reconnecting with his live-action family in Orange County, California and all the culture clash that comes with it.
Cancelled following the end of its first season.
Tropes of Zorn:
- Aerith and Bob: Zorn's son is named Alangulon ("Alan" for short). Even Zorn's name sounds normal by comparison.
- Barbarian Hero: Zorn, being a parody of He-Man but brought to modern America.
- Bigger on the Inside: In the opening for "The War of the Workplace", Zorn makes a sand castle so huge that Edie uses the bathroom in it.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Apparently, human-looking Zephyrians have two penises, as Zorn repeatedly mentions. This fact somehow gets Alangulon PREGNANT in the final episode.
- Black Comedy: Zorn trying and hilariously failing to euthanize a giant bird he got for Alangulon.
- Bland-Name Product Game On for GameStop. Blood Soldiers for Call of Duty.
- Callback: At the beginning of Episode One, Skunk Man has his head ripped off. In the penultimate episode, Edie and Zorn discuss his decapitation.
- Carry a Big Stick: After Edie learns that her neighbor is racist towards Zephyrians, especially since her son is half-Zephyrian, she gets an old warhammer out and smashes his lawn gnome.
- Cherry Tapping: Headbutt Man cannot headbutt anything due to too many years of using his head as a weapon, making it so even the tiniest nudge could kill him. When Zorn tosses Butt his keyring, it hits him in the head and promptly kills him.
- Cliffhanger: The series ends with one. Zorn has been kidnapped and returned to Zephyria by his Arch-Enemy, while Alan is pregnant. Since the show was Cut Short, fans will apparently be Left Hanging.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Zorn's idea of making sure nobody steals the hot sauce from the break room is to set up a booby trap.
- Episode Title Card: A picture of Zorn holding his sword aloft, accompanied by the title of the episode. It's In the Style of the title cards for the Hanna-Barbera action cartoons of The '60s.
- Eye Scream: "Return of the Drinking Buddy" shows that Headbutt Man lost his eye headbutting a unicorn.
- Fantastic Racism: "A Taste of Zephyria" has Zorn dealing with racist attitudes about Zephyrians.
- Fantastic Slur: "Zephies", regarding Zephyrians.
- Foreign Queasine: Among the foods eaten in Zephyria are goat urine and fried hay.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming: Edie shows this at the end of "A Taste of Zephyria" when her new neighbors end up insulting Zorn, causing her to pull out a giant hammer in her closet she hasn't used in years and smash the obnoxious talking lawn gnome in their yard.
- Impossible Pickle Jar: Zorn is inhumanly strong and yet is still shown struggling with one.
- Jock Dad, Nerd Son: The dynamic between Zorn and Alan, with Zorn being a barbarian hero and Alan being a regular teenager.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Linda and Craig.
- Mundane Utility: Zorn uses his sword as a toenail filer in "The Battle of Thanksgiving".
- Noodle Incident: In "War of the Workplace", while trying to teach Alan how to deal with a bully, Craig practically confesses that he was once bullied by a girl.
- Edie also has quite a lot of these from when she used to explore Zephyria with Zorn.
- N-Word Privileges: Lampshaded by Zorn concerning "Zephie" when his son picks the word up.Zorn (to Alan): I can say it...'cause I'm from Zephyria. And proud of it, I might add!
- Off with His Head!: Skunk Man's head is unceremoniously ripped off in the first episode.
- Perma-Stubble: Zorn in the present day.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: Zorn and everything having to do with Zephyria is animated, while everyone and everything else is live-action.
- Rule of Funny: With Zorn's superhuman physical prowess there are any number of jobs that would be a much better fit for him, and which he would likely excel at; furniture moving, personal trainer, courier... just a few that come to mind. Because of Rule of Funny though, he gets a sales job selling soap which does NOT play to his strengths.
- Selective Obliviousness: Zorn can't accept that his boss, Linda, is a woman. He insists that she's just a man who looks like a woman. Only when she's been demoted and no longer his superior did it finally sink in.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Zorn is the very manly man to Craig and Alan's sensitivity.
- Toontown: The rest of the world is live-action but everyone from Zephyria is animated.
- Two Scenes, One Dialogue: When Zorn and Edie discuss to Todd and Craig respectively to one-up each other on getting Alan to celebrate either Grafelnik or Christmas in "The War of Grafelnik".
- Use Your Head: Subverted. A lifetime of headbutting has given Headbutt Man extreme brain damage.
